A Normal Life
by rukiachan0793
Summary: Ryou is a 17year old boy. Can he handle Haseo's problems within The World while juggling a relationship with Shino and the other epitipah users that appear in the Real World?
1. Pandora's Book

**Chapter one **

The fleeting shadows of birds flying past cast shadows, penetrating the dark room through the horizontal, wooden blinds, with the sunlight slipping through. The birds' loud cries stirred a 17-year-old boy with short, chocolate, wind-swept hair from his slumber. He opened his dark red eyes, the colour of aged blood left at a murder scene, where he blinked for a few minutes, reminding himself where he was and who he was. He groaned and got up from the simple, plain gray mattress with the thick, grey and warm blanket, which he kicked onto the floor. He wore a crinkled black shirt with green shorts, and his hair stood up.

The boy's room consisted of a desk with a new computer on it, and numerous gadgets, with dozens of books laid scattered on the floor, and many more on bookshelves, a closet, and two other doors, one leading to his bathroom, the other to the hallway. He stumbled upon the hard covers of the books, and pulled up the blinds, sunlight bathing itself in his room, flooding the room with its yellow, almost glorious rays, exposing everything, to even darkest corners of his room. He shielded his eyes, and stared out at the high-rise buildings nearby then glanced at the black hanging clock above his bed, which read: 7:00 am. He kicked the books aside, and opened his closet, and pulled out a white t-shirt and old, comfortable black jeans, and threw them onto his bed, and rummaged around his room, looking for a pair of socks.

Some one knocked on his door, gently, and opened it, and there stood a girl around his age, smiling as she surveyed the room, as the boy pulled out an old sock from under a pile of classical books "Good morning Ryou… and what are you doing?" laughed the girl, she wore a light pink shirt, covered by a ebony jacket over it, silver shorts, and knee high black socks. She stared at Ryou as she crouched next his bed, peering underneath it, struggling to keep her giggles in. "Nothin'" came the reply from underneath his bed "but why are you in my room Shino? Can't you wait in the waiting room?" Shino smiled, and stood up, and started to pick up the many books scattered on the ground, and put them back in their proper place on the bookshelves. Ryou reappeared from underneath the bed, sneezing, yet triumphed in his victorious mad search for a pair of socks, when he noticed Shino going through something.

He brushed off the dust on his clothes, and walked over to Shino, and glanced over her shoulder. "Oh, that book. My father bought me that book last year. It's really weird, with the story of Pandora's Box…" Ryou shrugged and gently pushed her into the hallway, closing the door, as she kept on going through the book. He quickly changed, and tried to pull on his socks, to find to his dismay; that they didn't fit.

He walked out of his room, bare-foot, and saw Shino sitting on the stairs. A maid, named Mina, climbed up the stairs, holding a basket full of laundry. "Ryou, why are walking around bare-footed? Here, I washed your socks the other day…" She pulled out a pair of socks for him. Then the maid disappeared into the other rooms of the two-story house which Ryou shared with his father. Ryou then climbed down the stairs, to where Shino was sitting and stared at her. Her soft, almost sad, violet eyes reading the book, her smooth, short silver hair framing her pale face, and the graceful movements of her arms, and body, turning the pages were part of the many things that Ryou was always intrigued about Shino, she seemed to have a seductive, mystery air around her, even though he had known her for over a year. She noticed him standing next to her; she closed the book and looked up at him, "Oh, sorry, this book is really good." She smiled again, standing up and handing the book back to Ryou. "Err, no problem…" he took the book back, and placed on a table as they walked down the spiral stair-case.

"So, are we going to meet Atoli today?" asked Shino, as she put on her boots, making sure that her knee-high socks appeared above them, waiting for Ryou as he pulled on a brown jacket with a white trim and his white sport shoes. "Yeah, we're meeting her at some café," Ryou mumbled, opening the door for Shino.


	2. Arguing and huggin?

**I do not own the .hack//GU characters, nor do i live in Tokyo or anywhere that this story takes place. **

**Thanks Please read and review **

**Chapter 2**

"HASEO!" cried a loud voice, causing curious onlookers to pause and smirk, as a black-haired girl, wearing a school-sailor uniform, launched onto Ryou and hugged him, he pulled her off saying loudly, "My name is Ryou, loser, and Haseo is my character's name, Atoli…oh.. This is Shino" Ryou added, introducing Shino to the slightly-crazed girl. "Oh. You're Shino! It's so nice to meet you… finally…" Atoli's eyes travelled from Shino's hair to the ends of her boots "so, you and Shino going out?" she grinned, as Shino laughed, a pink blush creeping onto her cheeks, Ryou answered her, glaring "No, and what if we were? You going to throw one of your tantrums?" he scowled at her, and she glared back at him. "Well, SO-RIE, oh great one!" she said, tossing her head back.

Shino smiled a weak smile at the pair, as they hissed and teased the other, walking down the busy street. "you know, you two can the ones going out, you two argue so much, you guys sound like a old married couple" Shino laughed at the expressions on their faces. "Aww! Shino! Don't say that about me! Haseo here is the bully!" Atoli whimpered, pretending to cry. "I told you, my name is Ryou. Get a life!" Ryou growled through clenched teeth.

The trio spent the whole afternoon going around the city, either Atoli or Ryou finding a reason to bicker about the food, clothes, actions, personality about each other. When Atoli had finally waved at Shino, and punched Ryou, and left, Ryou let out a sigh. He had a smile on his face, shino noticed, and fell silent. The sun began to disappear behind the high-rise buildings that Ryou had been staring at few hours ago, its dying light casting a dull red around them, reminding Shino something terrible she had witnessed when she was a child; inevitably, she had always hated the colours made by the sunset.

Ryou noticed her quietness as they rode on the train, the passing shadows caused by the poles made her face seem only more upsetting, and sad. He touched her arm; making her jump in surprise "Are you alright?" he frowned slightly at her "Did you eat something this afternoon? Do you have a headache? Stomach ache?" he questioned her. She shook her head, and patted his hand, "It's alright, and I'm just feeling a bit tired, and yes, I did take my medicine. I took out a subscription yesterday morning" She said, showing him the pills she had in her ebony jacket pocket. "Oh, do you want to stay over again?" Ryou suddenly said "it's kinda boring, so stay at my house! We can both log into "The World" together, I have an extra controller and Lenses. I don't have school tomorrow and you don't have Uni tomorrow either right?"

"Sure, I see why not, good choice of days too, Ryou, cause the block of flats I live in are having their lightning source cut off today, there's supposed to be something wrong with the system" she said wisely, nodding her head as she talked.

"Oh!" Ryou had thought of someone that they didn't meet for a long time "What happened to Tabby?" He asked, facing Shino as she frowned to remember. "Tabby quit because she was training to be a nurse while I was still in a coma, she was on the other days when I got out of the coma." Shino replied, pushing a stray lock of silver hair from her face.

The train stopped at their station, where they got off and began to walk the five-minute walk towards Ryou's house. Their shoes made loud clacks as they walked up the empty, lighted street, in silence, their shadows appearing and disappearing. "Say, what kind of relationship did you and Ovan share?" he asked finally, his curiosity getting the better of him. Shino smirked, and thought for a few minutes. "Well, he's the complete opposite of you. He's a sensible adult while you're a teenage punk." Ryou glared into a street pole, suddenly slouching and kicking small pebbles that lay on the street. "Answer my original question." He muttered, Shino looked at him out of the corner of her eye, "Ovan… is just a friend of mine." She whispered, looking up. She noticed a person standing in front of Ryou's house. A person with long hair, ("is that a man or a woman?" muttered Ryou "or is that a wannabe woman?") as they walked closer and closer, the person turned to them. Shino looked at him closely, it _was a guy_! The man took a few steps towards them, and broke into a run; Ryou grabbed Shino's hand and ran away from the man "Argghhh! A murderer! Help!" but the man ran like the wind, ran up behind Ryou and hugged him tightly.

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woah, chapter two is up X( i'm so confused for the next few chapters! Chapter three will be up... soon? LOL.

But you should be able to realise who this man hugging Ryou/Haseo is...

:0


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